Clandestine Cooking
Reality and Dreams is an edible art experience and exhibition conceived by Iris Sham and Louisa Mammeri, that took place in its first iteration at Tars Unlimited Gallery on October 25, 2025 Bangkok.
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Reality and Dreams is an edible art experience and exhibition conceived by Iris Sham and Louisa Mammeri, that took place in its first iteration at Tars Unlimited Gallery on October 25, 2025 Bangkok. It looks critically at prisons as sites of biopower, where bodies are controlled through regulated diets, temperature and movement. "Care", in this context, tastes bland and is mostly served cold and during odd hours. Outside of the purview of the guards, however, inmates build alternative worlds where agency is regained through creative, clandestine cooking practices. Often relying on camaraderie, intricate agreements and makeshift tools, they recreate dishes and memories that become a doorway to the imagined, free outside world.
The work draws on interviews with former political prisoners from Myanmar and Palestine. Literary references include "When Cooking was a Crime: Masak in the Singapore Prisons, 1970s-80s" by Sheere Ng, artist Rafram Chaddad's accounts from his Libyan prison cell, as well as Frantz Fanon's writing on micro-freedom and Michel Foucault's writing on biopower.
In Iris' and Louisa's circles, friends in Hong Kong, Palestine and Myanmar have experienced this first hand and food had always been one of the first things they would talk about. By immersing viewers in aspects of prison conditions and the ways inmates use food to escape them, this work subtly nudges viewers to question 'illegality' and the laws set by the powerful. We had a talk about the project and how it was conceived and structured.
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Q. How did you and Iris meet, and where did the idea for this project come from?
A: We met during a research and food history residency last Summer in Cairo. It was called "Roots: Biopower and Resistance" and led by the doctoral researcher and cultural worker Salma Serry. It enriched our understanding of biopower, "political hosting" and what "care" means in such contexts. After this programme, we stayed in touch and wanted to work on a culinary research and art project together. A friend of Louisa brought up in a conversation that in Indonesia, political prisoners are force fed nutmeg as a form of "anti-microbial" cure after being beaten. That twisted sense of "care" left a mark. We then recalled conversations with friends, who had been previously incarcerated and who always spoke about food in prisons. It was such a memorable part of their experience.
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Q. Can you give me an overview of what the experience is like for visitors?
A: Yes! We first welcomed guests outside of the main gallery space to introduce the context. They were given a nutmeg-ginger drink and an envelope with a space guide, introducing the three parts of the edible-art experience: Reality, Dreams and Hope.
In the first part ("Reality"), some of the installations included butter candles and boiled vegetables plus spoons hanging from the ceiling. There was a food station with a display of rather tasteless food.
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
We then moved into a dream world. A projected video introduced the inner dream worlds of prisoners. In the background, behind a hidden makeshift kitchen, aromas of freshly cooked, delicious food started to fill the room.
This set the stage for the last part: Hope. Here, guests were able to learn from people who created mouthwatering food in complete secrecy under very difficult circumstances. Two former political prisoners attended as guest speakers and showed participants how they created a pestle and mortar in prison to make bland food more palatable or how they made a tool to form falafel from aluminium cream bottle containers and markers. In the end, , we transformed the bland food from the beginning into a communal feast.
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Clandestine Cooking at TARS Unlimited. Credits: the artists
Q. Have you conceived Clandestine Cooking as a one-time experience, or as a longer-term project that will be followed by other events?
A: For now, it was a one-time experience last October at Tars Unlimited. But our research continues. The more we interview former clandestine cooks and search in the literature, the more we see this truly is an underground art that exists in many places around the world. In the end, it's about more than eating and preparing a meal. It's about re-creating a portal to a desirable, free reality.
But we have some good news: Together with Sheere Ng, author of "When cooking was a crime: Masak in the Singapore prisons, 1970s-1980s", we will be giving a lecture during the upcoming Bangkok Art Book Fair. There will be some food and drinks from the exhibition as well. It's happening this December 6 from 7- 8 pm at BACC, so stay tuned.
Iris Sham and Louisa Mammeri. Credits: the artists
You can find more details about the book When Cooking was a crime: Masak in the Singapore prisons, 1970s-1980s at art4d. For more info about TARS Unlimited and other Bangkok contemporary artgalleries and art institutions, check our Exhibitions section.